Laughing With Your Children
Do you remember your baby's first smile?
The first smile and giggle when you accidentally tickle their neck while wiping the drool off (yep, true story).
Humor, smiling, and laughing is part of early development. It's one of the first things that babies do naturally, typically around 8-10 weeks.
According to Mary L. Gavin, MD of kidshealth.org, we often think of humor as part of our genetic makeup, but a sense of humor is actually a learned quality that can be developed in kids.
Although kids can start developing a sense of humor at a very young age, their humor changes as they develop. Here are some quick tricks to better understand your child's humor at each stage of development:
1️⃣ Babies- Your baby knows when you're smiling and are happy. They enjoy funny noises and faces and are able to sense your joy and happiness and will often imitate you. Tickling will often give some giggles as your baby is highly responsive to physical stimuli.
2️⃣ Toddlers- Your toddler appreciates physical humor, like peek-a-boo or an unexpected tickle. They will also find rhymes and nonsense words funny as their language skills develop. Around this time your toddler also enjoys trying to make you laugh so be sure to laugh at their (potentially unfunny) jokes.
3️⃣ Preschoolers- As your preschooler understands the world a little better, they will enjoy finding humor in a picture where something is not quite right (like an ice cream cone hat). Of course, as they become more aware of bodily functions (and what gets a reaction out of you), preschoolers also test out some bathroom humor.
© 2023 Benjamin Mizrahi. All rights reserved.
